


Aromatherapy

by Chellodello



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bath & Bodyworks AU, Fluff, Gen, Lovesick!Heichou, M/M, holiday fic, yes you read right
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-09
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-04 03:13:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1075861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellodello/pseuds/Chellodello
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi falls head-over-heels in love with a boy he sells overpriced candles to.<br/>Or;<br/>Eren just wanted his house to smell nice, honestly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. October

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this came from but I think I've written the first Bath&Body Works AU. This is probably why I never write AUs TBH.

 

 

 

_ Counting all different ideas, drifting away. Past and present they don't matter now the future's sorted out.... _

* * *

** October ** _  
_

Levi knows their type the moment they walk through the doorway and make the bells chime.

A girl and a boy, together. She is pretty enough; a somber looking asian girl with razor sharp eyes. She walks with a sense of purpose directly to the bath soaps. A return customer probably even though he doesn’t remember her at all: not like remembers every single person that dragged themselves through the doors.

Grazing behind her with a look of dumb wonder in his big green eyes is a boy;  late teens early twenties at most. He's probably her boyfriend being strung along like a toy poodle during a mall trip; it’s a story as old as time, or at least as old as shopping malls.

The brunet looks lost and confused in the brightly lit store. Levi watches with detached amusement as he picks up what he thinks is lotion, it’s not by the way its Honeyglow antibacterial hand soap, and sniffs it hard enough to send it up his nose.

He chokes and coughs, the girl asks if he is okay.

What an Idiot.

After he is done panicking the boy waves her away and then he is off, sticking his nose into every candle he can get his grubby hands on.

Levi would ponder it more but the girl has come to his register with two full sets of Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin shower gel and soap. She doesn’t say anything, but seems to know that they are a sessional  item and was stocking up. Definitively a return customer.

He bags them in a pastel-orange bag and hands her the receipt. She nods curtly and is off to grab the wonderstruck boy by the arm and drag him out of the store. He still looks an almost endearing mix of confused and amazed. Levi catches the boy’s eye for only a moment as he dallops a bit of Island Margarita hand sanitizer on his hands.

“They were cute.” Petra says from the register next to him.

Levi passes her the sanitizer and shrugs. “Teenagers are gross" but says nothing more on the subject; they won’t be back, at least not until the girl ran out of soap anyways.

* * *

 

Except two days later the boy returns.

Alone.

Levi is stocking, not his favorite duty in the world, when he slinks in looking as if he is unsure if he is allowed to be in the store.  Levi rolls his eyes. “Did your girlfriend forget something?” he asks from his perch on the ladder. The boy jumps when he realizes he’s been caught.

“What- I – no. She’s not- I uh.”

Holy shit this kid was a train wreck.

“You always speak this well?” he drawls as he places three mason jars of ‘Carving Pumpkin’ candles on the display rack. The sooner October was over, the better. Levi hated the smell of this pumpkin crap.

The boy rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and Levi certainly does not watch the action from the corner of his eye. “Actually, I was looking for something for me. Well, my house.”

Hmmm, very interesting. “How bad is the stench?”

“I wouldn’t call it a stench really?” he demurs but the way his ears flame red give his guilt away instantly. Levi almost wants to smile.

Almost.

“Are we talking _I forget to take out the garbage_ or _I have a pack of filthy college monsters in my house 24/7?”_ He’s dealt with this type before as well. College students who needed to hide the smell of ass from their dorm a week before room inspections begin: Idiot frat boys who wanted to mask the scent rather than clean it proper; though usually they sent a girlfriend or a girl friend to do it for them.  Rigid gender expectations of what store you can shop at and all that nonsense; Levi’s seen it all.

The boy smiles in defeat. “That later one.”

“That’s gross as hell.” Still a sale was a sale. The boy watches as he takes out a small bottle of hand sanitizer and squeezes it on his hands. Today is Spun Sugar day; making the immediate area smell like cotton candy. Satisfied that his hands aren’t particularly germ covered, Levi stares at the boy. "Hands."

"What?"

"Hold out your hands, I'm not having you palm around my clean store with booger and fluid covered fingers."

In the face of such strange demands, the brunet can do nothing but obey.  The sanitizer is cold and slippery, but he rubs his hands together none the less. "Thank you?"

Levi, satisfied that the kids wasn't going to give him SARs with his gross hands, presses a button on his headset and waits for an annoyingly perky voice to pick up. He is not let down. “This is Hanji running the fabulous stockroom today what can I do for you today my dear dear Manager?”

Levi rolls his eyes and makes a sound of distaste that makes both her and the boy chuckle. “Cut the shit Hanji, I need two 3-wick sea-island cotton candles at register 2 ASAP.”

“Aye Aye captain!” The voice on the other side chimes. Levi hates it when she calls him that, and that's probably why she does it. Sensing he is being stared at Levi turns his grey eyes to the brunet. "What?"

“Cotton? Are you sure uh” The boy looks at his name badge and then back up to his face, as if connecting the two. “—uh Levi?”

Levi steps down from the ladder and although he is a few inches shorter than him he commands the presence that only a man who lived and breathed scented candles for several years can exude. The boy immediately picks up on that and backs down. Good, very good.

“Yes cotton.Put one in the living space and another in the bathroom: Keep them lit for two hours a day if you can. Don't burn your house down.”

“And that will make it smell good?”

“No that is going to make it smell like the absence of stank. Before your stinkhole of a frat house can smell like anything other than redbull and pizza you need neutralize the odor."

He looks as if he wants to argue, making his brows knit together. He pouts when he's upset, how precious. "Trust me kid." Surprisingly enough that seems to defuse his mood and he nods as if he has come to some major decision. Levi can't help but wonder if he should me worried.

"Alright, I'll try it Levi."

The black haired man wants to retort, but all that comes out is “Petra can ring you up at the front.” Climbing his ladder again, he points him towards the front of the store.

Levi goes back to his display of mason jars, trying very hard to ignore the pleasant small talk between him and his coworker.

The green eyed boy sends him a small wave when he leaves, a jovial bounce in his step. “Try actually cleaning!” He snaps at him. The boy just laughs and sends him a mock salute. “Yes sir!”

Petra giggles and he sends her a glare that would kill if they could. "Isn’t it time for you to take your break?"

"Yes sir!" She quips but manages to skip away before he can throw something at her. Levi most certainly does **not** check the P.O.S station for the boy's name on his credit card receipt when the redhead is on her break. That would be unprofessional and mildly creepy.

"What kind of name if Eren Jaeger?" he mutters to himself.

“You’ve got it baaaaaaaaaaaad.” Hanji sing songs as she catches him looking up the receipt.

Jesus, is everyone going to catch him acting like an idiot today? Somehow he knows that this is just the beginning of what will become a huge problem. “You have no idea what you’re talking about shitty glasses.”

She tsks him gently and adjusts her glasses. “Nahahah, I heard over the blue tooth, you bantered with him.”

“I told him he was gross.”

“You only tell that to people you care about, you liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike him.”

Instead of an answer Levi sprays a jet of Caribbean Escape air freshener into Hanji's eyes.

* * *

 

Eren sits in the living room fiddling with his xbox controller, trying to find something good to watch on Netflix, when Armin returns with the mail in his hands. Oddly enough, the blond _doesn’t_ trip and fall over the mountain of shoes that live next to the front door. He looks up to find that the living room is clean for perhaps the first time since they moved in.

“Who cleaned?”

Stepping out of the bathroom as this exact moment, Jean sniffs the air exaggeratedly and looks around in confusion. “Why is there a candle in the bathroom and why does it smell like clean laundry.” 

“I cleaned.” Eren answers simply to his friend and turning to face his other roommate he sneers. “That’s sea-island cotton you uncultured horse and it’s because our house smells like ass.” Jean flips him the bird.

Understandably Armin is confused, Eren has never cared about their house being clean or smelling good, ever. He wants to know whats gotten into him, but doesn’t ask for fear of jinxing it.

* * *

 

Eren comes back to the store a week and a half later. Levi is working the stockroom when he gets a page from his assistant manager. “What is it Marco?”

“There’s a, uh guest—” Levi hears giggles. “Who is asking to speak with you sir.” He knows something stupid is a foot and tries to prepare himself for it the best he can. He sanitizes his hands, warm vanilla sugar this time, cracks his neck and walks out onto the show floor with his best _‘I am the manager of a bunch of morons so don’t fuck with me’_ expression on his face.

He is unprepared for the sight of Eren happily chatting with his staff. “Oh you’re back.” He says simply. Levi should have known from the giggles, he's getting soft with his old age.

Speaking of which, Petra smiles brightly and lays a hand of the boy’s shoulder. “Eren here was just telling us about your excellent advice sir.”

Levi narrows his grey eyes and vows to take her out of the running for employee of the month. Serves her right, the traitor. “Was he now?”

Eren practically vibrates with excitement, making his eyes glow and Levi's own soften. “Yes! You were right, the cotton worked perfectly. It smells normal for the first time since I don’t know when.”

Levi snorts in amusement and crosses his arms. “I also told you to clean.” He most certainly does not lean against the counter in what he hopes is a nonchalant pose, nope.

“I did that too.”

“Looks like you’re not as dumb as I thought.”

“I’m choosing to take that as a compliment."

Hanji has to busy herself with changing the register tape to conceal her squealing when Levi smiles: actually honest to god SMILES.The black haired man does a fair enough job of ignoring her, but Eren is unused to the bespeckled woman’s outbursts and is troubled. “Is she going to be okay?”

Levi shrugs. “Probably not, she’s just barely sane enough to function. I keep her around because not one else will have her.”

Hanji pouts. “How mean Levi, after I was such a good wingma—” He stops her there by throwing a silicon hand santizer case at her head. Marco and Petra pretend to be busy to avoid a similar fate, but all have small smiles on their faces. They've all been members of Levi's team for several months now and none of them have ever seen their usually creepily calm manager behave in such away.  Watching someone as straitlaced as Levi try to flirt with someone as disheveled and perky as Eren was truly a Halloween miracle to behold.

“Besides telling me that your house no longer smells like shit, is there anything else you needed me in particular for kid?”

If Eren is deterred by the kid comment then he doesn’t show it, instead he smiles brightly, which certainly does **not** make Levi wants to bury his face into his apron and blush. “Now that it doesn’t smell like shit, I was hoping you could help me find something to make it smell good instead of like nothing.”

“Me? What is my staff not good enough that you had to bring me out of my office to personally show you every scent in the store?”

“Yes. No. Shit I mean—” Levi in learning that confrontational sentences make Eren nervous when he isn’t sure where he stands. He wonders if they got to know each other better if that would change. He seems like the cheeky type. Not that he wants to get to know him. That would be inappropriate.  Eren fixes him with a look that showed just how truly lost in this store he was without guidance. “You knew just what I needed last time, so I figured you would again. If it's not too much trouble."

Marco swears he sees Levi’s small heart grow three sizes right in front of him. He has to intervene, he has to, in the name of all things sweet and righteous in the world. “I can take over stockroom duty if you’d like sir.” He chimes in merrily.

 _‘How very fucking convenient.’_ Levi thinks taking in the smiling faces of his crack whip team who are trying, and failing, to look like they're not ease dropping. He should dock them all an hour of pay, the disloyal bunch of them. With a raised eyebrow and a unspoken, _‘we’ll talk about this shit later’_ Levi hands over his headset to the freckled man.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day Eren, grab a basket.”

Eren leaves the store with 2 cinnamon frosting candles and a matching hand sanitizer that Levi slips in when he’s not looking.

* * *

 

Sasha sweeps into the Jaeger/Arlert/Kirschtein house with nary a knock, not that that was entirely unusual.  She gives Armin a friendly nod, throws her roller blades on the floor and practically skips into the kitchen following her nose. “Oh it smells great in here, who made cinnamon rolls? You guys really are the best friends a girl could ask for.”

Eren looks at her like she’s crazy as he pops the tab on a can of coke.  “No one made cinnamon rolls Sash.”

Sasha squints at him in confusion and opens the oven door anyway. Sure enough there are no delicious icing covered pastries to be found there or anywhere else in the kitchen. “B-but, the smell?”

“Jaeger’s going through a housewife phase and bought candles.” Jean comments dryly biting into an apple.

“Candles?” The brunette girl whispers as if she has never heard of such a strange thing in her life. She probably hasn’t.

“Scented candles.”

“Scented Candles? What the hell kind of—” Eren watches as her brown eyes wobble, as if on the verge of tears, before she fixes them on him.  “That is just cruel! Why would you do such a mean thing Eren!?”

He doesn’t know how to respond to that, he doesn’t know how to respond to most things Sasha said and did. Aren’t girls ~~and cute short shop managers~~ supposed to like scented candles? But Eren is pretty sure this is a ‘Sasha is weird thing’ rather than a ‘girls are weird thing’. Still he has a soft spot for crying people, so he awkwardly blows out the candle and  promises to buy actual  cinnamon rolls next time he goes grocery shopping.

* * *

“Moral of the story: apparently having candles that smell like food is a crime against decency.” Eren has been running in and out of the store for the last two weeks trying to find a candle that wouldn't upset his foody friend, to little to no avail.

Levi snorts and moves the ‘FALL SCENTS 50% OFF’ sign a bit to the left.

“So I was hoping that I could get candles that smell good, but don’t smell like food.”

“Aha.” He mutters and moves the sign to the right. He can't seem to get it to lay right no matter what he does. It was the last sale of the month, and then he could say goodbye to shitty pumpkin and hello to sweet sweet peppermint.

“Are you even listening to me Levi?”

It still doesn’t look right, maybe he's just unable to reach? The short man waves a hand at Eren dismissively. “Your friend is a human garbage compactor and is insulted that she can’t eat a one pound jar of wax.”

“I’m impressed.”

“I don’t know why, we both know I’m perfect.”

“And humble.”

“That too. Hey Eren, adjust this for me.”

Eren brushes his shoulder when he takes the sign and rearranges it on the display frame. Levi doesn't stare creepily, but if he did he would notice that the brunet bites  his tongue when he concentrates. It’s so adorable that Levi wants to make a trip to the gym supply store three shops down just to feel manly again. He refrains, but just barely. 

“How does that look?” Eren asks turning to look at him. With a knee on the table, one foot on the ground to balance himself, hair tussled messily and green eyes open wide, not to mention his cute little butt sticking out just so, Eren is a sight for sore eyes.

“Perfect.” Levi breathes like a prayer.

He’s not sure if he’s talking about the centered sign or about Eren.

-

It’s Eren.

Of fucking course it’s Eren.

But the sign being aligned doesn't hurt either.

-

An hour later Levi is sure the unfortunate subject of his rather picky fancy has stuck his nose into every scent in the store. Eren is dizzy from the smells. Amateur. 

“How do you do this every day?” Eren asks, taking a seat on a display box, which is not a chair. He yells at at least 5 people a day for sitting on that box, but Levi lets it slide because he’s pretty sure he’d let Eren do whatever he wanted at this point.

Levi tsks and squirts unscented sanitizer on his hands for Eren's benefit. “You have to not be a sensitive nosed baby for one thing.”

“Haha very funny.”

The short man ignores the quip, instead reaching into his apron pocket and grabs a handful of coffee beans. “Here smell these, it’s cleanses your nasal palate.” Eren turns away from his out stretched hand as if he is going to be sick. 

“Ugh, no more smells Levi please.”

Said man rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, no, you’re right, it’s not like I know what I’m doing or anything. How’s your stink free house by the way?”  He see’s realization come into the boy’s eyes and revels in the murmured ‘ _Sorry_.’ that comes from his lips. Once again Levi holds the beans out for Eren to take but instead of taking them into his own the brunet takes Levi's hand in both of his and brings it to his nose.

Levi’s mouth goes dry; which is dumb because he’s not a teenager anymore. All Eren is doing is breathing on his hand, it’s hardly the most erotic thing in the world, but his heart is beating a mile a minute regardless. He only hopes that none of his staff is watching, he'll never live it down otherwise. With only the smallest moments of hesitation, Levi lays his other hand on Eren's head. The locks under his fingers are softer than he would have thought for a twenty-something year old brat who was just learning how to take care of himself and his house.

After a minute of breathing in the coffee beans, and unknowingly giving the short manager a heart attack, Eren is all soft smiles again. He looks up at Levi like he has all the answers in the world, not just the hygiene related ones. “I should listen to you more often Levi.”

 “…...Yeah, you should Eren."

Shit, Hanji was right, he does have it bad.


	2. November

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean thinks Eren's dick game is hella weak and he might be right  
> Or;  
> Black Friday is the holiday of the devil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays Everyone! To celebrate here is a chapter about a holiday that happened a month ago. I've been completely blown away by the response this fic has gotten and it's honestly the best christmas gift a girl could ask for. Thank you so much.  
> 

 

 

 

_  
Watch, you're moving in elliptical patterns. Think it's not what you say, what you say is way too complicated. For a minute though I couldn't tell how to fall out.... _

* * *

** November **

“You’ve got a problem dude, admit it.”

If it were anyone other than Jean stating the fact he would be inclined to believe them, this was the second time in a week he’d found himself putting on his jacket to stop by the mall to peek inside the store. But because it is Jean he vehemently denies it. “Would it kill you to just not talk for a few minutes?”

“Probably.” The two tone haired man says flippantly as he shrugs on his own furlined jacket.

“Where are you going?”

“With you. I need to see what’s so good about this place to have you stick to it like white on rice.”

Eren wants to tell him to fuck off but there is no easy way to do that without telling him why; and the last thing he needed was for his roommate to know that he was borderline stalking the manager of a Bath & Body Works. So the green eyes boy screws his mouth shut and lets him tag along.

* * *

Early November is their slow season: everyone has their fall scents by now and it won’t be two weeks until they break out the winter ones, leaving the store with only a few stragglers who want to look and touch, but not buy.

It’s annoying, yes, but it does allow him to not to subtly watch the door for any cute brown haired, green eyed, twenty-somethings that may ‘wander’ in.

Levi tells himself to stop, while he’d ahead, but he still ends up rubbernecking the enterance.

Despite his wishes to the contrary, Eren can’t be at the store 24/7; he has a life outside the mall, a life Levi knows nearly nothing about. They don’t talk about the outside world that much. Why would they, they’re not dating or anything. As far as he knew the brunet was in a relationship with that stern asian girl from the first trip.

Levi was not about the unrequited love game:, he wasn’t going to be stuck listening to Taylor Swift albums in cliché-heartache for anyone. Which is why he tries to keep his pathetic teenage girl crush containable: Don’t look for him every chance you get. Keep your conversations to safe topics: Sales on candles, his shitty cleaning skills, his idiotic coworkers only, and for the love of god don’t perk the fuck up whenever he so much as glances at you.

This plan is easier in theory than in action.

“Levi!” Of course the exact moment he stops looking the brat shows up. Figures.

Eren waves at him enthusiastically and makes a beeline for where he is staring stupidly into an abyss of home-freshener wallflower bulbs. The short man does not smile, but it is damn close. “Don’t you have a life?” He asks before he notices the tall man-child scuttling behind Eren with a look of wonder on his face; as if he’s never seen such exotic things as air freshners and shimmer lotion. He probably hasn’t.  Levi raises a thin eyebrow in question “Whose horse?”

Eren rolls his eyes and leans closer to him, whispering conspiringly. “My roommate, Jean.” Levi doesn’t know why this information requires whispering and breathing on his ear, but he’s not about to complain. They both watch as he experimentally sprays a jet of room perfume too close to his nose, and skitters back.

“He’s almost too stupid to function.” He mutters; never mind the fact that Eren had done nearly the same thing his first visit. Eren was a gift from the angels above sent to bring joy into Levi’s dull life with his cute smile and his A+ ass; Jean was not and therefore garnered no sympathy from him.

“Yeah, hey do you think you can maybe…..” He trails off looking in the direction of where the other workers were congregating. Levi understands immediately.

“No problem.” He drawls. “Marco, go help him.” He nods toward Jean. His assistant manager smiles, he always smiled, he freak, and approaches the lost looking man offering  to show him around the store. Jean nearly gives himself whiplash from nodding so fast. Marco had that effect on people. “Tada.”

“You’re the best.”

“That’s what they tell me.”

“So…… why are there two Marcos?” He points over to the register where a freckled girl in an apron is chatting with Hanji about something. “Or a girl Marco? They could both be Marco, it could be like a Lutece thing, I guess.” Levi has no idea what he’s blabbering on about and if he didn’t know better he was struggling to make small talk with him. Bless.

He takes pity on him. “That’s Ymir, Marco’s sister. We hire her for seasonal rush. She’s rude, but somehow people like her.” He doesn’t tell him that he’s known both the Bodt twins for over 3 years now and that he was actually rather fond of the crass girl; if he had actual problems with Ymir, he won’t keep rehiring her season after season.

Eren laughs. “Seems to be a theme here.” The black haired man tries to decide if he’s just hyper aware or if the brunet is standing much closer than usual because even over the sterile scent of the store be thinks he smells the tang of hand sanitizer.

“Fresh Picked Sweet Clementine?” He inquires.

It takes a moment before he understands what he is talking about and Levi quite likes the look of mild panic that passes over his face, it was endearing. “You can tell from all way over there?”

Wow, what an idiot. An adorable idiot whose hip kept brushing his side. He watches as Marco leads Jean toward them to look at the air freshener bulbs.  

“You’re practically plastered to my side like white on rice, what do you mean ‘all the way over there’?” Marco tries not to laugh and Jean snorts and mutters _'thirsty as fuck'_ as Eren takes an overly dramatic step back. They take pity on them and move on to the aromatherapy wall.

“Sorry.” Eren mutters.

Levi wants to kick himself for saying something because now there are two feet and a sea of awkward between them. Sometimes he hates his big mouth. “Ah, to answer your question; of course I could smell it. Moderately priced soaps are my calling.”

“…..Did you just quote Mean Girls at me?” he asks incredulously. 

Levi mouth twitches on the left side, an almost sinister smile. “No one will believe you if you tell them.” Eren gawks, mouth wide with shock and Levi notes that he has nice teeth, very nice teeth, all straight and pearly. He’d love to see if his mouth tasted minty from the amount of brushing it probably took to keep them that way.

 _‘That enough making an idiot of yourself for one day.'_   Levi reaches into his apron and pulls out a pocbac of crisp golden pear hand sanitizer and opens it. “Are you actually going to buy something today or are you just going to drill me on my knowledge of shitty teen cult classics?”

“Both, if that’s okay with you.”

Levi accidentally squirts half the bottle on his hands.

* * *

 “This candle makes our house smells like wet leaves.”

“You’re a wet leaf.”

Jean rolls his eyes and scratches absently at his neck. “You’re the dumbest person I’ve ever known Jaeger. But really, it  smells like ass. That Marco guy might be cute—” he ignores Eren’s fake barfing sounds “—but he picks shitty candles.”

Armin sighs from his perch at the kitchen table and pauses his typing. Why can’t they go through a single day without Jean and Eren at each other’s throats? “It’s Eucalyptus Jean, calming.” he interjects before the argument could escalate. 

“How is it calming?” Jean pesters with an irritated tone, scratching at his neck harder. Come to think of it his throat was starting to feel itchy too… “If anything I think it’s making me sick.”

Eren tears his eyes away from his half written, completely bullshit’d, recipe comparison notes to throw some insult at his almost-friend but his green eyes widen when he takes in sight of him. “Do you have to complain about eve-Holy shit, Jean. “

“What?!”

“ARMIN, ARMIN GET IN HERE.”

Armin groans and slams his laptop closed with more force than needed. He peeks into the living room and covers his mouth with his hands.  “What’s wrong E—oh my goodness.”

“What, what’s wrong. Fuck why I am all itchy!?”

Armin tries to remember what Annie taught him about from her EMT training: Stay calm. Give direct orders. Don't piss yourself because your friend is swelling up like an over ripe strawberry. “Eren, go get the car ready.” He mutters and the brunet nods jerkily, practically sprinting to his keys and shoes.“Jean, don’t panic, please don’t panic, but I think you’re having an allergic reaction to the candle.”

Said man’s face has swollen up, his cheeks becoming puffy and irritated,his neck blotchy from scratching. In short, he looks like shit. Jean takes his encroaching anaphylaxic shock quite well in Armin's opinion. “Of fucking course I am.”

Eren feels so guilty about the fact that he has almost killed Jean with a candle that he doesn’t even tease him about the undignified whimpers he makes when he passes out on the ride to the hospital.

* * *

 Eren returns to the store with the Eucalyptus stress relief candle the next day.

“Hey Eren, what brings you in today?” Marco asks from behind the register. Eren is fond of the freckled man, he’s polite, easy to talk to and once you got to know him he was much less of a goody-two-shoes.

He lays his receipt and candle on the counter. “I was hoping to exchange this for something else.”

Marco laughs and scans the transaction in the register. “Yeah, Eucalyptus can be a bit much.”

“Oh no, that wasn’t the problem, I like the smell, but Jean is allergic to Eucalyptus. We found out the hard way yesterday.”

His brown eyes widen. “Oh shit, I mean shoot, is he okay?” Eren snorts, it was cute how the staff here still tried to keep their good worker hats on around him. It’s almost cute enough to make up for the fact that he looked like a kicked puppy over stupid Jean. Eren suddenly remembers that Marco had been the one to suggest the candle to them.

“He’s fine; he’s back home bitching and moaning about nearly dying. You should text him or something; assure him that you weren’t trying to kill him off, though I understand if you were.” He writes down Jean's cell number on the old receipt paper. Getting Jean a nice boyfriend better make up for the fact that he almost killed him, he was tired of being nice to him.

Marco laughs and Eren knows that the minute he goes on break he’s going to do just that. Gross.

Dear god, he was starting to sound like Levi.  He vows to be worried when he starts developing a hand sanitizer fetish and a love of poop jokes. Speaking of which, he picks up a hand sanitizer case and asks, in what he hopes is a nonchalant tone, “Sooooooo is Levi here?”

It is not nonchalant in the least and Marco smiles knowingly. “Actually he’s off today.”

Eren tries very hard not to visibly deflate; results are mixed at best. “Oh.”

“Can I ask you a question Eren?”

“Uh yeah, sure.”

Marco wipes his hands on his apron before starting. “You know we’re all fond of you, but why do you come here so often? No one likes candles that much, well except Levi maybe.”

“I’m not as smooth as I think I guess.”

“You’re not smooth at all.”

“Ouch Marco, harsh.” There is no bite in the banter though and Marco waits patiently for him to come up with the words to explain. He fingers a wallflower bulb to give himself something to do. “At first I only came here because Mikasa wanted to get more of her bath gel. She made me come along while she was visiting from her university.”

“Mikasa is your girlfriend?”

Eren makes a face that is the cross between revulsion and ‘I just sucked on a lemon’. “What? Ew no. Mikasa is my sister. Why? Did Levi think that— I mean, did you all think that she was my girlfriend?”

The freckled man laughs. “You can’t blame us; most guys who come in here are dragged by their mothers or girlfriends.”

“That definitely explains some uh, stuff.”  Eren riffles through the holiday section, smelling the candles for something that won’t kill Jean and something that won’t offend Sasha’s stomach as he continues his answer. “For the record, I’m not dating anyone. But I honestly came back because my house smelled horrible. I just wanted it to smell nice. Everyone acts as if that’s weird.”

Marco nods. “Try the Marshmallow Fireside. It’s not a heavy food smell, but still really comforting. And now? Why do you come in now?”

He does as he’s told. “Holy shit this smells awesome.” He slides two mason jars of it on the counter, as well as a matching scent bulb.

Marco laughs heartily. “Let me ring you up before you buy half the store.”

“Now, well, I still want my house to smell nice, but I really like hanging out with you guys.”

Across the store Petra is helping a mother and daughter pair pick out which lotion is best for them, and his sister is half putting up window displays, half making faces as the blond man who worked at the fitness supply store a few shops down.  He knows that Hanji is in the back going over sale orders and letting her coffee get cold. The only thing missing is their manager himself, whom Eren was trying not to pine over. “And Levi?”

“Levi too.  Mostly Levi. 80% Levi. Okay pretty much completely because of Levi.” The brunet lays his head on the table and groans against the cool wood. Jean was right, he was thirsty as fuck.

The freckled man takes pity on him as he scans his bundle, how could he not? Watching Eren and Levi dance around each other like a flock of uncoordinated birds was the highlight of his winter season. “You should tell him that you like him.” Eren scoffs. “I’m serious. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but he’s not very good with people. They find him off putting, so if you don’t come out and say it, he’ll assume you’re really here for the candles.”

Marco hands him his bag. Eren looks so lost for a moment that he can’t help but tack on: “I say this as completely non-involved third party by-stander with no interest in the outcome of this at all, buuuuuuut, he’ll be in tomorrow at noon. And he likes his coffee nearly white, with two sugars. I’m just saying.”

* * *

 Marco fiddles with his phone nervously. He’s been off work for over 3 minutes now and while his entire shift all he could think of was texting Eren’s extremely cute friend; now that the time has come he’s not sure how to proceed. He only has a few minutes before Ymir finished her shift and then the opportunity to text without his sister breathing down his neck would be lost.

Nervously he taps out a message and waits for a reply. It doesn't take long.

 

With a well-meaning scoff the freckled man stops tittering from one leg to the other and takes a seat on the metal bench. The crisp November air sends chills down his spine and readjusts his ear muffs before texting Jean back.

 

Marco thinks things are going well, might as well go for broke. With cold fingers he taps the screen of his iphone and sends what is probably the lamest joke he’s ever come up with; which is saying something.

 

You can never tell with texting, but Marco thinks that the ill-spelled comeback is in jest. Everyone loved pun-based humor right? Espcially when you explained it afterwards.

God his horrible grammar was adorable. He can almost imagine him lying in bed in what was probably some crime against fashion pjs, making over dramatic faces at his phone. Marco hasn’t dated anyone in a long time, but hot damn he really likes Jean from what he knows about him. Which admittedly isn't much, but he has a funny feeling about him and his feelings are rarely wrong.

He sees his sister walking toward him through the glass doors. If he was going to ask Jean out now was the time. Because if Ymir figured out who he was texting, which she would, she’d never let him live it down; the teasing would be endless. Curse the psychic birthday twin bond between them that let her know exactly when he was about to make an ass out of himself.

 

“Corporal clean freak made me recount the holiday shipment three times before he’d let me go, what a dick.” Ymir complains as she joins him outside. Marco makes a sound of acknowledgement, but doesn't really pay attention to his sister’s bitching as they walk to the car. He’s too busy trying to figure out if he’d read this the wrong way or not. Maybe Jean wasn't into guys? Maybe he was coming on a bit strong? He erases his original text of **‘15; All of the Homo. So much homo’** and decides to stick to the parameters Jean had set up.

At worst he could claim it was a joke and spare them both the awkward dance of _‘sorry I came on too strong and weirded you out.’_

 

The winky face makes his heart melt.

“What’s got you all giggly?” Ymir tighten her scarf around her neck and tries to sink deeper into her jacket. When that doesn't work she plucks the red earmuffs from his ears and slams them down on her head. Normally this would start a round of bickering between them that would last the entire ride back to their apartment, but Marco is too busy being full of butterflies to care.

“Nothing~”

He opens Ymir’s door for her and she sends him a look of suspicion. “Sometimes I don’t know about you Marco.”

Marco merely grins and shut her door.

* * *

 To absolutely no one’s surprise, other than maybe Levi himself, Eren is in the store at noon on the dot with two coffees from the Viva Café two stores over.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, hooking Mr. Clean and Jeepers Creepers up?” Ymir asks watching as their boss does his best not to swoon over the drink. She’s only worked peak seasons here, but even she knows that this is highly strange behavior for the short man.

Petra elbows the tall girl in her in the ribs. “You don’t have a romantic bone in your body Ymir. I think it’s sweet. Everyone deserves love.”

* * *

 "I’m worried about him.” Armin admits to Annie over lunch on the 20th. They've elected to go out to a café between their two homes, despite his reassurances that their house was not only clean, but able to be sat in for more than ten minutes at a time. The blonde EMT is reluctant to test it out.

“I don’t understand, so he’s been buying candles? That’s a good thing right?” Lord knows that she spent their entire shared childhood of being next door neighbors hoping Eren would spontaneously stop being a human disaster.

Armin sips his coffee. “It’s not just that, it’s just…..”

“Just what?”

“Okay it’s kinda that. It just seems so strangely out of nowhere. One day I’m secretly taking hoarded dishes out of his room and then next he’s buying antibacterial foaming dish-soap. Never mind the fact that he nearly killed Jean with a eucalyptus candle.”

Annie can’t help but smirk at that.  “Let him be, you know how Eren gets about things, all or nothing. I give it a month before he’s back to his normal gross self.”

The blond man isn’t entirely sure about that, and while he doesn’t want his friend and roommate to go back to being icky, he can’t help but feeling as if as long as the scented candles kept appearing, things would only get weirder.

* * *

Levi likes things to be clean and orderly, that’s why he chose to work here instead of going into business or any other career path he could have with his qualifications. He’s a district manager of stores; he could sit in a stuffy office downtown and run numbers. Boring yes, but easy and well paid.

Levi turns that offer down and insists that he could only properly manage from the showfloor, and he drags his feet enough that they let him. A little more encouraging (re:bullying) and they let him hand pick him team. Cherry picked from all the stores in the city limits, the people who work under him have become trusted employees and sincere friends.

They understand his compulsion to fix displays and to right candle fixtures; they let him carry on with his quirks with no comment or small smiles. Some of them went back years and they knew him and oddities as well as they knew what scent was in the classics collection from what was a seasonal one.

Which is why when the third week of November rolls around they know to give their short manager a wide berth as the stress of the upcoming Black Friday sale loomed closer.

Unfortunately no one gives Eren such a memo.

* * *

At 4:38 in the morning Eren is woken up by his cell phone blaring to life on his desk. At the shrill sound of his ringtone Eren bolts upright and tries to get out of bed, only to become entombed in his blankets like some kind of demonic caterpillar.

“Shit, shit, fuck, shi- Hello?!” He answers, voice thick with sleep. In his rush/head trauma to answer the phone he has neglected to check the caller id. Who the hell would be calling him at this time of night/day anyways?

“Eren? This is Petra, from the store?”

“How do you have my number, also why?”

On the other end of the line there is a peel of nervous laughter. “I may have looked you up in our card system.” He doesn’t know what to say to that, so he says nothing and hopes that Petra’s reasoning will become apparent. “Which is a lot less creepy than it sounds. Sorry to wake you up on the night after thanksgiving. I hope that was good for you and your family….” He can hear the dull roar of crowds in the background, as well as what must certainly be the shrieking of several overzealous banshees.

“Petra, what’s up?”

“We have a, uh, _small_ problem. Levi has seemed to have gone a bit, um, crazy.”

There is no hesitation in his answer. “I’m on my way.”

* * *

The store, nay the whole mall, is in complete pandemonium. Eren has never gone Black Friday shopping before; unlike his roommates he has never seen the fun in braving stampedes of people for a slightly bigger tv. It hadn’t even occurred to him that the store would be open at all. Who woke up at 3am to buy candles?

Apparently all these people did. And his friends thought _he_ was crazy.

As it is the entire store is completely swamped when he manages to get there around 5:30am. Both Marco and Ymir are ringing up customers at half the speed of light, Hanji is doing a demonstration between the differences between anti-bac gentle foaming hand soap and deep cleansing beaded hand soap at one of the sinks, there are people he has never met before helping out customers and Petra is handing out mesh shopping bags at the entrance.

When she spots him she visibly slumps in relief. “Thank goodness you’re here. Sorry, I didn’t know who else to call.”

“How long has it been like this?” Eren asks in awe, dodging a young woman who nearly topples him over to get to the body mist display behind him.

“Since we opened at midnight” He thinks he spots a small black blur zoom across the show floor moving at breakneck speed to stop a mini candle from falling over when someone’s mesh shopping bag hits it. If he weren't so concerned he’d be impressed. “We’ve been here since 10 pm getting ready. Levi is usually a little ‘high strung’ during big sale days, but I think he’s heading toward a meltdown this year.” The orange haired woman stares at him with imploring eyes. “The next shift of people comes in at 7am to close everything down, he hasn't taken a break the whole night. Can you please do something with him before he stresses himself into a hysteria?”

Eren wants to tell her that they’re not like that, that it wasn’t really his place to do anything with Levi. Surely he had someone else who would do a better job of winding him down. But like always, his mouth reacts before his brain could get a word in edgewise.  “Yeah, no problem.”

It’s a tricky trip, but Eren manages to wade through the throngs of sale-goers and corners Levi near the antibacterial rack. Without thinking he reaches out a hand and grabs the man’s forearm. The brunet knows that this is a mistake the moment he does it, he can feel the muscle in his surprisingly bulky arm tense up and when he turns he elbows him away with enough force to send him staggering.

“I’m getting stock from the back, no need to get handsy- oh. Eren.” He looks like shit, like he hasn’t gotten enough sleep in a long time, his usually calm and naturally narrow eyes are wide and frantic. Eren knew that he wasn’t very good with germs or large bodies of people, but he hadn’t known that it made him into some feral cat-creature. It should send him running for the hills, forget his stupid crush and move on.

Instead it only fills his heart with further adoration.

With open palms he lays his hand on his forearm again. “Levi, it’s time for a break.”

* * *

It’s a struggle, but Eren manages to use whatever favor he has accumulated with the black haired man to wrangle him into a jacket and out of the store. The mall is crawling with people and the break-room is disheveled and a mess, which would only make things worse: finding no other alternatives, Eren shepherds an eerily calm Levi into the passenger seat of his, thankfully clean, car.

It’s awkward to say the least, but he turns on the heater to stave off the cold. To his credit, Levi isn’t a complete trainwreck, but he was certainly on his way there. He can tell by looking that the man's nerves are shot and he desperately needed to calm down. He sits unstintingly still in his seat, nursing the tumbler of coffee Eren picked up on the way here. 

“They think I’m going to go postal.” The short man says staring at the sleet accumulating on the cars glass. It isn’t snowing yet but it was close.

“They were worried.”  Eren answers weakly.

“And so they called you. Brilliant. Best fucking plan I’ve ever heard. A crack team I’ve assembled. Emphasis on ‘crack’.” It would be a funny joke if it weren't delivered in a deadpan voice that is somehow different from the usual deadpan he drawled out. Eren wonders if he should be worried that he knows there is a difference.

“I don’t mind.”

“It’s the asscrack of dawn, of course you mind. I bet you’re wondering why I’m like this?” Eren knew that Levi was a bit of a clean freak, which was most likely some degree of germophobia, but he had never thought it was anything other than a quirk that made Levi Levi. He doesn’t give him the chance to say this though, because he's on a roll, chattering away. “I don’t get along well with most people. I’m off putting and pissy. People read this as crazy, which is fine with me, less people to deal with. I'm usually okay for big sales, but Black Friday is the worst. Too many people, too many variables, too many fucking germs everywhere.” He cringes and Eren's heart goes out to him.

“Then why come in? I’m sure Marco would have handled it.” He prompts.

Levi takes a sip of his coffee. “Part of my contract, I have to be there. Besides, I’m their manager, if I’m not there when the shit gets rough why have me there at all?”

Eren thinks that in another life, another world, Levi would have been a great general; he knew how to take control of a situation even when it made him uncomfortable and despite what he thought, his employees thought the world of him. They would follow him into lotion-based hell if given the order. “You’re a very good leader.”

Levi scoffs and it is the first non-monotone sound he’s made. It’s progress.

The car is getting warm so he switches the heater into standby and, thinking on his feet, pops open the glove compartment. He hands the black haired man one of the many hand sanitizer bottles he keeps there. "You feel gross. Here." He says gently.

Levi’s fingers lock around his hand in an iron grip, almost hard enough to hurt, but he still is looking forward when he speaks. “I could fucking kiss you right now Eren. Thank you.” He lets go and opens the tube with practiced ease, as if he hasn’t just laid a proverbial bombshell on him. “Confetti Cake, not my favorite but beggars can't be choosers.”

Eren’s face bleeds red. Holy shit, he did not just say that. _“—if you don’t come out and say it, he’ll assume you’re really here for the candles.”_   He recalls Marco’s advice and is unable to stop himself from blurting out:

“I wouldn’t mind if you did. Kiss me that is.”

The bottle clinks shut and Levi’s head snaps toward him with such force that he thinks he hears vertebrae snap. He fixes him in his place with a strange expression in his grey eyes. "Excuse me?"

The brunet figures he can afford to dig the hole a bit deeper. “Really. You can kiss me. Should kiss me. I like you a lot, why do you think I keep coming into the store?”

Levi stares.

“I mean at first it was because Mikasa, who is my sister NOT my girlfriend by the way, dragged me in. And then it was because I really did want my house to smell nice.”

Levi continues to stare.

“And now I think I got Jean a boyfriend because I'm always there,  which is the opposite of what I want, it's turned him into a monster. He keeps telling me my dick game is weak, what an asshole. But that’s really not the point.”

Levi hasn’t blinked in over a minute.

“I just really like you Levi. I like spending time with you and I’d like to spend more time with you, outside the store. Or in the store. Anywhere really, I'm not picky. So if you’d like to—"

About this time Levi takes pity on him and his big fat mouth and calls his name, shutting him up. “Eren.” He places two small soft hands on his cheeks to stop his rambling. They smell like Confetti Cake, whatever that smells like.

“Yesh?” he says through smooshed cheeks. Levi smiles and, wow, that is a lovely sight.

“You’re an idiot and I’m going to kiss you now.”

And he does.

Eren’s not saying that he sees stars when Levi kisses him; but if he did he’d be looking at the ‘hot fucking damn’ star in the constellation of ‘sweet jesus take the wheel’ located in the ‘holy shit I am in love’ galaxy.

* * *

Meanwhile, a few miles down the road at a jam packed Target; Jean pauses ramming his shopping cart into another person’s shopping cart for daring to even look at the new ps4 that had his name all over it to check his phone for incoming texts.

 

He wishes he didn’t.

"You okay Jean?" Armin asks. He has his arms wrapped around a car radio that he's picked out for Annie as if someone was going to take it from him. Jean wishes they would just makeout already and get over it. With a sour look on his face he hands Armin his iphone.

The blond man can't help but laugh. "I'm not saying you brought this on yourself by egging him on but...."

"Shut up Armin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently there is a tag for this fic on tumblr (?); fic: aromatherapy, you can find all my notes and quips about writing this bad boy there or on my blog.
> 
> Lyrics at the beginning are from Phoenix's '1901'; though I was listening to the Birdy cover instead of the original while writing this.

**Author's Note:**

> I swear I only went into a B&BW to get more hand sanitizer, but that turned into me thinking that Levi would probably love that place, and somehow this fic happened. I think the world needs more Lovesick!Levi as well. I spent waaaaaaaaaaaay too much time in the B&BW to research this fic.  
> Lyrics at the beginning are from Phoenix's '1901'; though I was listening to the Birdy cover instead of the original while writing this.


End file.
